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October 17, 2023 • Liberty Fund

“Slavery, Capitalism, and the New Moralism”

By Michael Douma

I see the New History of Capitalism, the 1619 project, and the increasing policing of historians’ language about slavery (enslaved persons, not slaves, etc) as allies in a kind of […]

September 12, 2022 • American Institute for Economic Research

The Venture Capitalist Approach to Being an Academic

By Michael Douma

Traditional capitalist investors seek steady returns on investments with little risk of failure. Venture capitalists, however, invest in an array of risky but potentially high-return projects. Similarly, traditional academics seek […]

March 24, 2022 • Brill Publishing

Estimating the Size of the Dutch-Speaking Slave Population of New York in the eighteenth Century

By Michael Douma

Historians of American slavery are well-aware that there were slaves in New Netherland before the Dutch colony’s surrender to the English in 1664.

February 9, 2022 • Project MUSE

Dutch-Speaking Runaway Slaves in New York and New Jersey, 1730–1825

By Michael Douma

The history of runaway slaves in America has suffered from both chronological and geographical limitations.

January 25, 2022 • American Institute for Economic Research

“What the Hell is Inflation Anyway?”

By Michael Douma

For most of the history of the term, inflation did not mean rising prices but rather rising prices were one of the consequences of inflation.

January 25, 2022 • American Institute for Economic Research

What the Hell is Inflation Anyway?

By Michael Douma

Arguments about inflation are nothing new.

September 11, 2020 • Brill Publishing

Book Review: New Light on the Old Colony: Plymouth, the Dutch Context of Toleration, and Patterns of Pilgrim Commemoration

By Michael Douma

Although many of the chapters in this volume have been published previously as journal articles and as introductions to primary source collections, their compil

September 8, 2020 • Cato Institute

The Liberal Approach to the Past

By Michael Douma

What do we mean by liberalism or liberal history?

June 1, 2020 • PhilPapers

Book Review: How History Gets Things Wrong: The Neuroscience of Our Addiction to Stories

By Michael Douma

A new book by an established philosopher of science challenges the value of narrative explanations, of history, and of purposeful action more generally.

February 1, 2020 • University of Chicago Press

The Colonization of Freed African Americans in Suriname: Archival Sources relating to the U.S.-Dutch Negotiations, 1860-1866

During the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln’s administration engaged in protracted negotiations with representatives of the Netherlands to aid in

the colonization of freed african americans cover

September 1, 2019 • Law & History Review

Lambertus DeRonde, Translation, and the Context of Public Meaning

By Michael Douma

To get at the original public meaning of the Constitution, it would be helpful if we could get into the mind of an everyday contemporary, a Joe the Ploughman

row of sculpted busts in front of bookshelves

August 9, 2019 • Cambridge University

Two Early Dutch Translations of the United States Constitution: Public Meaning in a Transnational Context

By Michael Douma

In 1788, a Dutch-born minister in upstate New York named Lambertus De Ronde translated the U.S. Constitution into Dutch.

american flag waving with sky in background

July 29, 2019 • Social Science Research Network

The Impressment of Foreign-Born Soldiers in the Union Army

By Michael Douma

In 1862-1863, well over 1,000 foreign-born men living in the United States argued that they had been illegally drafted into the Union military.

December 1, 2018 • Michael J Douma Personal Website

Book Review: How Americans Kept Warm in the 19th Century

By Michael Douma

In the 18th century, Americans burned a lot of wood to keep their homes warm.

September 1, 2018 • Research Gate

Why Historians have Failed to Recognize Mises’s Theory and History

By Michael Douma

Theory and History is often said to be Ludwig von Mises’ least read and least appreciated book.

August 14, 2018 • Routledge Books

Creative Historical Thinking

By Michael Douma

Creative Historical Thinking offers innovative approaches to thinking and writing about history.

January 25, 2018 • Inside Nova

I-66 Tolls Cause Winners and Losers in the Daily Commute

By Michael Douma

The tolls on Interstate 66 have been active now for over a month.

December 21, 2017 • Cato Institute

What is Classical Liberal History?

Edited by Michael DoumaPhillip W. Magness

Historians working in the classical liberal tradition believe that individual decision-making and individual rights matter in the making of history.

June 26, 2017 • BMGN

A Dutch Confederate: Charles Liernur Defends Slavery in America

By Michael Douma

In the 1850s and 1860s, Dutch immigrants in America struggled to square their racial views with the politics of slavery in their new country.

February 9, 2017 • The Hill

Unintended effects of Trump’s trade policy beginning to emerge

By Michael Douma

Two months ago, I predicted that President Trump’s attempts to pick winners and losers in the marketplace would ultimately fail.

February 2, 2017 • Social Science Research Network

McCloskey’s Dutch Problem: Capitalist Rhetoric and the Economic History of Holland

By Michael Douma

Deirdre McCloskey argues that rhetoric and ideas were essential for the rise of capitalism in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century.

January 4, 2017 • The Hill

Influencing One Business is Not Sound Pro-Business Policy

By Michael Douma

From the looks of things, most Americans support Ford’s decision on Tuesday to keep more of its manufacturing in Detroit.

December 8, 2016 • The Hill

Trump’s attempts to pick industry winners and losers will ultimately fail

By Michael Douma

President-elect Donald Trump’s intervention in the recent Carrier decision to keep more of its jobs within the United States does not signal an unprecedented

large air conditioners on city building roofs

December 6, 2016 • Social Science Research Network

How the First Ten Amendments Became the Bill of Rights

By Michael Douma

The term “the Bill of Rights” used as a proper noun to refer specifically and exclusively to the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution was largely a res

November 1, 2016 • BizEd Magazine

Hands-On Ethics Education

By Michael Douma

Georgetown Offers Courses to Students – and Training to Teachers

December 9, 2015 • Taylor & Francis Research Insights

Sorting the Past: the Social Function of Antique Stores as Centers for the Production of Local History

By Michael Douma

As centers of material culture and storytelling, antique stores are useful sources for writing local history.

September 1, 2015 • Research Gate

How Dutch Americans stayed Dutch: An Historical Perspective on Ethnic Change

By Michael Douma

This study explores Dutch identity in the United States, demonstrating how over time Dutch Americans have remained persistently present as a distinct group

November 1, 2014 • Project MUSE

Tulip Time and the Invention of a New Dutch American Ethnic Identity

By Michael Douma

In the 1930s, the Dutch American immigrant community of Holland, Michigan, underwent a cultural reawakening through its Dutch heritage Tulip Time festival.

August 26, 2014 • Social Science Research Network

Founding-Era Translations of the U.S. Constitution

By Michael Douma

Before its ratification, the United States Constitution was translated into German and Dutch for the German- and Dutch-speaking populations of Pennsylvania and

April 1, 2014 • Academia

Rediscovering Van Raalte’s Church History: Historical Consciousness at the Birth of Dutch American Religion

By Michael Douma

The leader of a nineteenth-century Dutch migration to the United States, the Reverend Albertus C. Van Raalte, stood at the center of religious debates both in